I’m a big believer in eating natural and unprocessed foods, which means basing the diets on foodstuffs such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, vegetables and some fruit. However, I am not averse to having some dairy products in the diet, in particular full-fat plain yoghurt. With a few nuts and berries chucked in, I reckon […]

I had an email recently from a journalist friend of mine this week which included a communication he’d had from a reader. The reader had been refused health insurance on the basis of his ‘raised’ cholesterol. It was suggested to him that he would be eligible for insurance once his cholesterol ‘problem’ was ‘under control’. […]

In a recent blog post I wrote about research which linked consumption of artificial sweeteners and aspartame in particular with certain cancers. This sort of ‘epidemiological’ evidence cannot prove that aspartame or other artificial sweeteners cause cancer. However, as I pointed out in the blog post, we have research which shows that giving aspartame to […]

Low-carb advocate Jimmy Moore recently had me back on his podcast as part of this ‘encore week’. Jimmy asked his guests to vote for which previous guest they would like to see back on his show and, flatteringly, I made the top 5. In our interview Jimmy and I discuss patient empowerment and some little […]

Statins are drugs that reduce cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme in the liver known as ‘HMG-CoA reductase’ which ‘drives’ cholesterol production (most of the cholesterol in the bloodstream is made in the liver and does not come directly from the diet). But HMG-CoA reductase also facilitates the production of a substance known as ‘coenzyme Q10’ […]

It’s the New Year, and this time usually brings with it an upsurge in the numbers of people wishing to shed excess weight. Some of these may even have been urged to take steps to lose weight by their doctor or other health professional. Governments and the medical profession frequently warn that being ‘overweight’ or […]

Artificial sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame have the ‘promise’ of being better than sugar for weight control because, although sweet, they contain virtually no calories. It’s a nice theory, though the reality is I cannot find one single properly conducted (randomised, controlled) study in humans exists in the scientific literature to support this. Now, […]

Ezetimibe is an effective cholesterol-reducing drug (it works by blocking cholesterol absorption from the gut). I came across a study this week from a group of researchers based in Michigan in the US which concluded that ezetimibe appeared to have a ‘protective effect on major AD [atherosclerotic disease] events and all-cause mortality…’ [1]. In other […]

January is not that far away now and when it comes around at least some people will turn their thoughts to shedding surplus pounds through diet, exercise or both. I came across a report this week of a recently-published study which compared the effects of aerobic exercise with resistance training on weight and fat loss. […]

Two weeks ago I wrote about an article in the British Medical Journal which recognised the fact that it’s possible for someone to suffer from a sensitivity to gluten (a protein found in wheat and other grains) even if coeliac disease (a form of gluten sensitivity) has been eliminated as a diagnosis. This recognition is […]

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